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If Friday’s Redevelopment Authority meeting did anything, it affirmed there’s support among Green Bay leaders to build a new expo hall and that Brown County may have to take a different tack to make it happen.

Both Mayor Jim Schmitt and Alderman Randy Scannell voiced support for a new expo center during the RDA meeting but also raised concerns about some of the details for using the room tax.

In May, the County Board approved a six-year county sales taxes to help fund debt reduction, infrastructure needs and property tax reduction. The 0.5 percent sales tax money would go toward roads, jail expansion, a maintenance fund for the Resch Center, the Brown County Library system, a STEM center, the Neville Museum and an expo center.

Of the estimated $93 million for an expo hall, $15 million of that would come from the sales tax and the rest from room taxes – a 10 percent tax that guests pay on hotel room stays in Brown County.

Currently, part of that money is committed to the KI Convention and the Resch centers until 2029.

County Executive Troy Streckenbach wants to tap that tax for the expo center.

We like the idea, as do surrounding municipalities that pay into the room tax, but the city of Green Bay has balked. It wants more time to negotiate what happens with excess funds and to find about more about the costs of the project.

However, Brown County faces a time crunch. It wants to have a deal by mid-August in order to inform the state that it will institute a temporary 0.5 percent sales tax starting Jan. 1.

We think it’s time for the county to consider breaking up this proposal in order to save it. A procedural vote could split the plan, allowing Brown County to go ahead with its temporary sales tax and start collecting it in 2018 while continuing to negotiate on the details of the expo center.

The county would then have more time to furnish the RDA and city with more concrete plans and costs for the expo center.

Once a deal is reached, the expo center plan could move forward with sales tax money. Remember, it wouldn’t receive any room tax money until 2029.

The city of Green Bay also needs to remember that it was Brown County that came through and helped with the expansion of the KI Convention Center in downtown Green Bay.

In 2012, when Schmitt wanted room tax money to fund the KI Center expansion, he said it would help the downtown and the region economically, keeping it competitive with Appleton and other Wisconsin cities that go after convention business.

This sentiment holds true with a new expo center, especially given that the Fox Cities Exhibition Center is slated to be completed by the end of the year.

The Veterans Memorial Arena needs to be replaced, not repaired or renovated.

To do nothing is to risk losing the events it already hosts and prevent it from attracting events to an aging, 20th century type of venue. It won’t compete with the KI Center because the two venues attract different types of events.

Its location is key across the street from Lambeau Field in a thriving district that we believe will be even busier when the Green Bay Packers’ Titletown District and the city’s proposed Legends District are completed.

We hope the city doesn’t lose sight of this. When Green Bay needed help, Brown County showed the ability to look beyond jurisdictions and municipal borders and see the regional impact of a convention center would have on the economic well-being of the downtown and the region. Let’s hope the city and RDA can do the same.